When do we get serious about pollution in India?

India has seen rapid development in the past two decades, but it has come at the cost of increasing pollution. Pollution has reached its peak due to the development and modernization of our lives.

It disturbs the balance of our ecosystems and affects our normal lifestyles. It also gives rise to human illnesses

According to World Health Organization (WHO) data, fourteen Indian cities are among the world’s 20 most polluted in which Kanpur tops the list of world cities with the highest PM2.5 levels in 2016. Air pollution caused 4.2 million deaths globally in the same year, the study said. Kanpur’s average PM2.5 level in the same year was 173, which is 17 times higher than the WHO’s safe limit.

Patna is in the fifth spot with average PM2.5 levels recorded at 144, Delhi is in the sixth spot with average PM2.5 levels recorded at 143.

The fourteen Indian cities involve Kanpur, Faridabad, Varanasi, Gaya, Patna, Delhi, Lucknow, Agra, Muzaffarpur, Srinagar, Gurgaon, Jaipur, Patiala, Jodhpur and the others are Baoding, Ulaanbaatar, Hengshui, Xingtai, Anyang and Liaocheng. The study added that nine out of 10 people in the world breathe polluted air.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO said “It is unacceptable that over 3 billion people – most of them women and children – are still breathing deadly smoke every day from using polluting stoves and fuels in their homes. If we don’t take urgent action on air pollution, we will never come close to achieving sustainable development” as per the BBC reports.

Last year, a public health emergency was declared in Delhi as pollution levels crossed 70 times the safe limit.

Maria Neira, WHO’s head of public health, said India should follow the example of China, which had made big improvements in air quality.

Environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems caused by human activities. We should always remember that pollution problems affect us all. We have to overcome to see a tomorrow and guarantee our future generation a healthy life. Each of us has to do his or her best to help restore ecological balance.